Wednesday, February 5, 2014

A Weekend Well-spent!

My friend, Karen Pratt and I host quilt retreats.You can read about them here.

So I know the value of getting away for a weekend devoted to
quilting.This past weekend, instead of
hosting a retreat, I got to just sit and stitch.You can read more about the weekend on this blog, written by my friend and ‘pugmom’, Nancy.But here is what I accomplished (and imagine, all this counts towards my
pledge to sew for twenty minutes each day).

I worked on these cupcakes on Friday and Saturday. This little wall quilt is one of my newest patterns. They are fused and then buttonhole (or Blanket) stitched. I used a variety of threads, including a metallic thread from Wonder Fil that stitched like a dream.

Then on Sunday I started work on a new sample of another of my patterns, Wrap It Up.

Here is the pattern cover:

During the weekend, I started the pinwheels, by drawing lines on the wrong side of lemon-lime squares, and started stitching the blocks.

And then I had to come home (sigh).

On Monday, I took part in a group project. One of my daughters made a bowling shirt for a friend who is attending a Punk Rock Bowling Tournament in Las Vegas (who knew?).

She stitched it, a friend of mine added the embroidery, and then I made the buttonholes, hand finished the collar, and machine stitched the buttons (a new one for me - I have always shied away from adding the buttons by machine. I could not shake the fear of the needle striking the button, shattering it, and getting something stuck in the bobbin race - egad!).

But they came out great! Yes, that is a skull embroidered above the bowling pins.

Don't worry, the pic makes it look lumpy, but that is due to my photography skills, not my stitching skills.

Finally, yesterday I finished up those Wrap It Up blocks. I show pics of them later this week.